A New Meaning to Home
by Ladibelle
Summary: In New York, a homeless street performer is accused of being a mutant and is chased by the MRD. Upon hearing about the X-Men and their cause, her life is changed but she has yet to decide if it's for better or worse...at least she meets new people.


Central Park was a very pretty spot in New York. It had the highest concentration of trees in the whole city and was used by many, including street performers looking to make some cash for their talents. Some didn't even want to make cash, but just wanted to have fun and entertain. The roads and alleys and walkways would occasionally have one of these entertainers on the side playing music and incorporate the audience, some would just do some tricks like some very surprising juggling acts. There was even a hula-hoop man by the Bethesda fountain who would bring what seemed to be a truckload of hula-hoops and play the bongos while people used them. This wasn't often, but people had fun with it.

One day in central park, by one of the many statues, a homeless young woman was sitting on the bench close by and rolling her battered in-lines back and forth with a plain look on her pale face. It was late November and getting very cold. The trees were almost bare and a crisp wind would blow through every once in a while, making the woman shiver a little as she tugged on her very long scarf, making the multi-colored stripes of orange, red, brown, blue, yellow and green shift about her neck a little. She looked up at the sky through rectangular specs, having to squint her brown eyes a little form the light. Almost sunset, she would have to get going soon. She took off her black conductor's hat and let it plop on the ground in front of her and shook out her straggly strawberry-blonde hair, pulled back in a low ponytail to the small of her back, but some strands were left out and fell in and around her face.

Rubbing her stripe-covered stockings a little to warm her hands, the girl stood up, not having trouble with the roller blades and started skating around in a circle to pass the time. The sun finally set and dusk washed the park in a blue-ish gray light and the lamps started to come on. The woman sat down again and watched as some people passed by, waiting. Finally, a family passed by consisting of two boys, one being older than the other, and two happy-looking parents. She smiled; family was nice to have around. She hadn't spoken to hers for a while, though…With a final thought, the girl took off one of the black wrist guards on her arms and set it aside. In a second, a small white light appeared in her hand and she blew it towards the kids. The boys saw the little puff of light and followed it in circles a little, the parents casting it a curious glance. They spoke to one another about something, of what the girl couldn't hear as she sent out two more lights towards the boys and started to blink like fireflies.

"Mommy…" one said, his voice trailing off as he pulled on his mother's sleeve and pointed to the homeless girl on the bench. The family moved closer, the boys trying to catch the little puffballs that evaded them at the last second. A couple more spectators slowed in their stroll to see what was going on. The girl took off her roller blades and stood up on the bench, blowing more glowing balls of white light into the air and letting them fall like slow. Some of the younger spectators tried to catch them on their tongues, but the little lights moved out of the way. The girl took the other wrist guard off and outstretched her hands with her palms facing up. She jumped off the bench and held them out to the smallish crowd. Some people, she noticed, were giving her skeptical looks while others watched with some concern. Most of the kids, now there were five present, looked excited about what would happen. Would she catch all of the fuzzy lights herself? Her palms filled with light as she blew the lights towards the kids with a playful smile on her lips. The children's faced seemed to light up as the lights started to bob about and the girl was up on the bench again, moving her hands like she were an orchestra conductor. In correspondence to her movements, the lights either bobbed, grew brighter or dimmer as they floated about.

More people stopped and watched as the act started to pick up pace and the girl started to move her hands in circles as the lights started to move about through the crowd. Some people screamed and other laughed as the lights played with them and moved on. With a movement of the hands, the lights shot up into the air and came together in the vague form of a large bird with a very long tail. Holding her hands palms-up again, the bird dive-bombed back down to her after circling about the crowd and it broke apart before all the lights went back into her hands. The light never faded as the girl reached into the pocket of her light brown duster jacket and pulled out a small pole. With a small twitch of the hand, it extended to a reasonable size for fighting. The tips were covered in the light at some were released back into the sky. She started to twirl the pole in her hands, behind her back, tossing it up and catching it, the lights on the tips were moving in what seemed more like ribbons as the others moved about in circles.

The performance was almost done, the woman looked down to see that her hat did have some money in it, but barely any. In a last attempt to dazzle the people, she clapped her hands together and a bright flash of light caused the audience to cover or close their eyes. When they opened them, one by one, the girl was gone, her hat and lights were still there and the pole was standing upright, as if placed very carefully. A couple of people threw in some cash, more pocket change than anything. Suddenly, making some people jump or yelp, the girl dropped out of a tree and landed on her hands on the pole, upside-down and all the lights still in the air. The audience clapped, some not doing anything and looked at her as if she were a freak. She pushed off the pole and made it go back to its smaller size and dive-rolled to the ground. She came back up, kneeling on one knee and her palms up. The lights bolted back to her and finally faded from sight. It took a while, but the audience finally started to calm down and started to leave, some people staying behind as the performer put her wrist guards and in-lines back on. She picked up her hat and sorted through the money she earned…not much. Actually, it was a pretty good night considering what she normally got. With a smile, she put the cash in one of the many pockets of her baggy black shorts that were cut off just below her knees.

"Hold it right there!" a gruff voice shouted as the girl looked up. MRD…the group of men surrounded her bench, some civilians looking rather smug. It was only a matter of time before she was called.

With a sigh, the put her hat on and her hands on her narrow hips. "Excuse me, but you just missed it. Come back next week." She said in a dreamy tone of voice and tried to skate off, but her arm was grabbed by one of the officers. She looked back at the officer and smiled. She used her other hand to pull down her scarf, and a bright flash of light caused the man to let go of her arm as his hands flew to his aching eyes. She took the chance to skate away before they could see again and was well out of their way. Unfortunately, they could see again and she was still within eyesight and the pursuit was on.

As soon as she was out of the park, the sirens started blaring and she made sure to take as many back ways as she could to avoid being spotted. She rolled through the alleys and pole-vaulted over fences to stay free. Finally, she found the time to sneak into a manhole and dropped into the sewers, moving the lid of her entry into place with the pole and started to slowly make her way through the smelly tunnels. Finally, after an hour, she stopped and put her hands on her knees, feeling the fatigue catch up to her.

Panting and exhausted, she sat up against the wall, her eyes looking more in a daze as usual. She looked up, the moon shining over the buildings and some rays even made their way into the dark sewers through the drain. Closing her eyes, the bum could hear the sounds of the city echo like ghosts off the tunnel walls. The sirens were still going off and she could now hear helicopters overhead. They were probably news or MRD. Other than the offensive noises, the rest of the city was somewhat calming to her, although a little too loud. The sound of people going about their lives gave her hope that maybe she…all mutants…would be able to do the same, not in hiding or fear of being caught. That was a future she looked forward to, even if she was still poor and had no house. She had a home, all the home she ever needed was in her own skin…and her scarf and hat. Before she felt she could sleep, she stood up, they'd be checking the sewers any minute now, and maybe they were already there, so rest wasn't an option. She skated down the tunnel, hoping to find her way to a place where she'd find refuge. At first the trek was slow, but extra footsteps spurred her into speeding up into a sprint.

As she rounded a corner, she was thrown to the ground and caught in a net. The voices of men echoed in her ears as her hands were roughly bound and most likely covered. She wriggled and thrashed, kicked and bit until her legs and head were pressed to the ground. A sharp pain then shot into her head and everything started to get fuzzy and dark.

Bobby walked through the streets with his hands stuffed in his pockets, making sure not to freeze anything. He needed air! So what if there were MRDs around and picking up mutants off the streets. As long as he ran when the sirens started, things would be fine. He looked as normal as possible as far as he, or any human, could tell so no one could possibly suspect him. He whistled happily through the streets, enjoying the time out. Logan, or Kitty, would probably chew him out later for it, but could they blame him?

Sadly, his fun was short-lived as the sirens sounded and the helicopters flew to the skies. Was nothing sacred? Bobby looked around for a place to hide in until the commotion was over, but then he heard something. Skates? He poked his head around a corner and into an alley to see some girl pole-vault over the fence and bolting into the street, only to hightail it to another alley. Filled with curiosity, Bobby followed her to where she was headed, but when he rounded the same corner, she was gone. And this was a dead-end, too…he head a sound and saw the lid to a manhole shift and drop into place. The sirens came closer, and Bobby took no time to stop and followed the ragged person into the sewers, making sure to close the lid before running. Before long, he saw the shadows of officers and slowed down, an angered expression on his face. Yelling, thuds and more shouts were heard before things quieted down.

This was his chance! Bobby froze the guns on the officers and froze their feet. The surprised men looked down and around in surprise, just in time to see Bobby punch one of them. He froze the rest of them in ice from the sewer water and went over to check on the knocked-out mutant they were after. He reached out to see if she was okay…but then she lashed out and had a pole at his throat, a not-too-happy look on her face, but she still looked like she was a little spacey. Babby's hands were up after letting out a yelp in surprise, half of the pole at his throat covered in ice.

"Who…are you?" the girl in the coat asked and seemed to calm down a little.

"Uh…I'm Bobby. Bobby Drake…now who the heck are you and would you please put that down?" Bobby stuttered and the woman in front of him did so, now looking somewhat calm, but her expression looked…out there.

"I'm Skyler Fozworth. Nice to meet you." She said and looked around. She grabbed Bobby by the wrist and started skating off with him trailing behind. "Sorry, but I'm not taking chances…" she said as they turned a corner and continued on.

It took ten minutes, but Skyler finally believed things were save and she sat down, still exhausted and let go of Bobby's hand. He looked around and sat down next to her. It was silent for a few minutes, and to Bobby, it was very awkward.

"So…why were the MRD chasing you?" he asked, desperate for something to do. Jo looked up and then forward at the wall.

"Someone called them thinking my act was because I'm a mutant." She said simply and started to play with the tassels at the end of her scarf.

Bobby took some time to think, then there was a chance she wasn't a mutant? He was beginning to see just how out of control the MRD was getting, not that they weren't crazy in the first place. A sly smile then creased his lips and he started telling Skyler about the X-Men and if she'd heard of it. She said no, and this led to a long story about the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, who the Professor was, the X-men (although that was probably a mistake) and the explosion a year ago.

Skyler took this in, never changing her expression and not saying a word. She tilted her head from side to side a little bit and stood up.

"Well then, let's go." She said and started to skate ahead of Bobby, who was a little shocked by the sudden action.

"Wait, what?" he asked as he stood as well, but was quite dumbfounded by this new development. What would Logan do to him when he found out?

"Well, why else would you tell me if you didn't plan to bring me?" Skyler asked and started forward again, not looking like she was about to go up top again on their way there. Bobby seemed to imitate a fish for a moment before catching up to Skyler to try and stop her. The last thing he wanted was to get his head chopped off by Logan…

(A/N: I've never written anything for X-Men before…It used to be my favorite cartoon as a kid and after hearing about this new one, I thought I'd put a little…input. Although I think Wolverine is being WAAAAAY overexposed, I'm still taking a look at it. I still love Evolution though; I practically grew up on it. By the way, Kurt is win.)


End file.
